EDITORIALSaying adieu to a key Meatpacking pioneerAs the final days of Florent Morellet’s infamous diner approach later this month, chronicled in the many mournful news stories eulogizing the prolific and provocative restaurateur, the man often referred to as the Mayor of the Meatpacking District still has his gaze fixed on the future of this ever-changing neighborhood, rather than on the past.

The poop on pigeons; Swingin’ birds drop mates, tooBy Bonnie Rosenstock
In the city ethos, we have an ambivalent, adversarial or impoverished relationship with what remains of nature. The urban squirrel, although arguably appealing, is nonetheless a nut-begging rodent with a bushy tail.

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Villager photo by Elisabeth Robert

Volunteer Samuel Mangual mixed the bingo such as foxy bingo as explained here in this http://www.foxy-bingo.org.uk/ foxy bingo uk balls at the Baruch Addition Senior Citizen Center, at 72 Columbia St.

Seniors say closing NYCHA centers is too great a gambleBy Lesley Sussman
Just a few days after the New York City Housing Authority announced it might have to shut down many of its senior centers because of a lack of funding, news of the proposed closures spread like wildfire among the elderly poor, evoking sentiments of shock, sadness, dismay and anger.

Second helping of Grossinger’s hits the spot; From ping-pong with Jackie to La Liz’s weddingBy JERRY TALLMER
There are dozens of celebrities and celebrity anecdotes scattered through the 187 (paperback) pages of the newly reissued “Growing Up at Grossinger’s,” but Tania Grossinger, the Greenwich Villager who wrote the book, and who in fact had as a kid grown up at Grossinger’s, the famed Catskills resort hotel where her glamorous mother was the social director, says that she, Tania, “couldn’t have cared less, was never celebrity-driven, never star-struck.”

Partnership hails achievements it has cultivated
By Albert Amateau
The Union Square Partnership held its 24th annual meeting at the W Hotel on Thursday last week celebrating the progress of the city’s first business improvement district and the beginning of the long-awaited reconstruction of Union Square Park’s north end and the square’s northern plaza.

In a shocker, D.I.D. backs Squadron over ConnorBy Julie Shapiro
In an upset vote that members described as “stunning” and “shocking,” the Downtown Independent Democrats endorsed Daniel Squadron over incumbent State Senator Martin Connor.

Tenants say investment firm is harassing to cash inBy Matt Townsend
Shortly after Tricia Brouk arrived in New York from St. Louis in the early 1990s, the 20-something settled into her apartment in the East Village and made a career for herself as a choreographer and dancer.

Village Awards loaded with pork, pastry and poetryBy Albert Amateau
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will honor the people, places and organizations that contribute to the character of the Village, Noho and the East Village at the 18th annual Village Awards next Tuesday.

Brass band of brothersBy Lee Ann Westover
Almost every afternoon, lucky crowds of New Yorkers and tourists gather en masse around the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, pulled in by their bombastic brand of instrumental music that draws from hip-hop, soul, funk and jazz.

Crossing the border By Erasmo Guerra
“Mexican High,” the debut novel by Liza Monroy, reads like an insider’s guide to Mexico City.

Paying tribute and talking trashBy Debra Jenks
Ever since Marcel Duchamp turned a urinal upside down and deemed it art, the use of common materials has prevailed in sculpture. The canon of “non-conventional” mediums has informed generations, from the “Combines” of Rauschenberg to the varied mediums of Fluxus (a Latin word meaning “to flow”), to the consumer-culture kitsch of Jeff Koons.

Verve and historical veracityBy Scott Harrah
One-man shows are never easy for actors, especially when the subject matter is serious. Nothing is more emotionally powerful than stories about the early days of the civil-rights movement.

Villager Arts & Lifestyles

Hot town, summer in the cityBy Lee Ann Westover
Though all of New York City seems to ring with music in the summertime, Downtown is fast becoming the epicenter of a varied and vibrant outdoor concert scene.

Loisaida artists find inspiration close to homeBy Bonnie Rosenstock
When one conjures images of the Lower East Side, wildlife probably isnt the first picture that springs to mind. But for the Artistas de Loisaida, or the Artists of the Lower East Side, the neighborhood flora and fauna offer endless inspiration.

His mothers sonBY GARY M. KRAMER
Tom Kalin burst onto the film scene back in 1992 with the New Queer Cinema classic Swoon, about homosexual thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb. His latest film Savage Grace also deals with queer true crime in dramatizing the 1972 Baekeland murder case.

Cry-Baby belts out hysterical histrionicsBy Scott Harrah
Cult filmmaker John Waters may be a pop icon, but it is impossible to think any adaptation of his films could be as colorful, powerful and seamless as the Tony-winning 2002 musical version of his 1988 magnum opus, Hairspray.